A Different Time
by PhoenixOfDark
Summary: AU Harry goes to Hogwarts only for his seventh year after being tutored by the reclusive Nicholas Flamel. A new dark, sarcastic Harry with action, adventure, and who knows what else. Romantic elements will happen...probably.
1. Prat into Rat

A/N This is totally A/U and is basically just a fun idea that came into my head, it's more me using the world created by the wonderful J.K Rowling (who by the way owns all the characters...unless i make some new ones up, then those are mine) and playing with it to dos oemthing that i find amusing. Enjoy, feedback is welcome, sorry it's only one shorts chapter to start but...i don't really want to keep posting if no one likes it. There's a hint there, tell if if it's good, tell me what i could do to improve it, that would be lovely.

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After the lives of his parents were claimed as an infant, Harry Potter The Boy Who Lived, Hero of the wizarding world was taken under the wing of one of the greatest wizards and alchemists of time, Nicholas Flamel. He and his wife tutored young Harry for many years until they believed it was safe for him to enter Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for what would be his final possible year.

"Well, if it isn't two weasels and a mudblood, how fun."

A pair of faces started to go red. It was over half of the way to Hogwarts from platform 9 3/4 in London and the occupants of this compartment thought that they might make it an entire trip without the snide comments of a snake by the name of Draco Malfoy, alas, no such luck.

Hermione sniffed standing up straight and pointing to the Head Girl badge pinned onto her robes.

"If I hear you insulting fellow students again Malfoy, it will be detention with Filch and house points."

Malfoy sneered and pulled his wand out of his pocket pointing it at the girl calmly.

"Now, now mudblood, I'd watch what you say, it would be very hard to take house points from St. Mungo's now wouldn't it."

The two redheads leapt out of their seats pulling their wands and pointing them at Malfoy, both their faces flush with anger. This seemed to amuse Malfoy even further as his muscle stood behind him cracking their knuckles and two other slytherins had their wands pointed at the two.

"Well, well, we appear to have you outnumbered and outmatched as usual." A malicious grin appeared on Malfoy's face." Although we may need to teach you three some manners before tossing you out the window, those robes seem fuller than before so maybe we'll have a go, all of us, at least mudbloods and blood traitors are good for one thing."

Ron was about to throw himself at Malfoy when he simply...disappeared. That is until everyone looked down to see a quivering white rat on the floor it's beady red eyes staring up at them.

It took a minute for everything to register at which point the two Weasley's literally collapsed on the floor they were laughing so hard. Malfoy's cronies were struck dumb for a moment before recovering enough to start yelling at them demanding to know who'd done that.

The rat starting floating upwards into mid air and a hand reached out to grab it by the neck. This hand belonged to a steadily reappearing young man. He was fairly average height, but with a nice build, long untidy black hair, and brilliant green eyes. The young man wore a smirk and appeared all too pleased with himself.

"Well," He started, grinning like an idiot "that would have been me, and I must say he looks far better like this."

The young man started casually tossing the white rat up and down in the air as it squeaked and squealed trying to get away while everyone else stood there, their mouths hanging open, wondering what the hell was happening.

With a flick of his wand and a quick muttered incantation the rat glowed for a moment before the young man started tossing it against the wall and catching it as it bounced back.

Malfoy's two muscles (Crabbe and Goyle) charged at the intruder hoping to take back their beloved rat of a master. Young man sighed keeping the grin on his face as he twirled away from the two lumbering buffoons doing a pirouette causing them to crash into each other and fall dazed to the floor. The young man casually pointed his wand at the remaining two and shouted with jubilation "BUTTERCUP" grinned as two small potted plants rested where previously two humans stood. Spinning on his heel the young man gave an underhanded toss to the very dizzy rat sending it bouncing down the corridor.

At that moment another very identical pair of redheads threw themselves as the young mans feet and started 'sobbing' and laughing and bowing to him.

"My LORD, We are your humble servants here to do your bidding in any capacity you may desire."

The young man continued to smirk before giving the three still dumbstruck teens a wicked grin summoned a sword and taking on a very solemn air moved to pat them both on the shoulders with the flat of the blade.

"Arise my knights, by the power vested in me by Merlin, The founders, and your great aunts knickers, I dub thee Dumb and Dumber."

The two of them blinked at each other grins forming."Which is which?" The one on the left asked innocently.

"That will be determined by a test, I have heard of the pranking prowess of the Weasley Twins, I have yet to hear about one twin being greater than the other. The challenge is to visibly and beyond any possible doubt humiliate the teacher you hated the most during your time here that still resides here."

The twins blinked looking at each other "Separate?" this time it was the one on the right.

The young man nodded and the two smirked at each other, stood up, shook hands, and left in different directions.

He stood watching the two of them chuckling to himself as Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and Ginny Weasley looked at each other nervously.

"Excuse me...who...who are you?"

The young man shrugged turning to face them smiling at each in turn.

"no one of consequence."

With a nod and a little wink he turned on his heel and sauntered towards the back of the train and into the last compartment. The three looked back and forth at each other.

"Do...do you think we should go after him?"

Ron was grinning and still laughing at the image of Malfoy the rat.

"Thank him? Give him a bloody medal more like it, not only did he turn Malfoy into a rat, but he also took about all of his goons and set Fred and George on Umbridge, this is the best start a year could have."

Ginny chuckled along with her brother but hermione was frowning looking down the train aisle.

"Alright, I'm going to go talk to him, he's obviously a new student and needs to learn that behaviour like today's is not acceptable at Hogwarts."

Ron and Ginny blinked at her trying to make sense of what the young witch just said.

"You mean you're going to _punish_ him for that? He was defending innocents that were being ganged up on. You know it's true, but we should go talk to him, to at least thank him."

As usual Ginny acted as the voice of reason combining both Hermione's strict attention to rules and her brothers slightly more...liberal view of the world creating a happy bridge between the two.

Hermione and Ginny started walking down the aisle quickly with Ron trailing behind continuing to giggle about the 'Rat Incident'. Reaching the door to the compartment they had seen him enter Hermione went to open the door, only to find it locked. Not willing to be deterred she slid her wand out of her pocket and muttered _Alohomora_. Nothing. Her eyes narrowed, she appeared to sense a challenge. She ran through several more muttered spells, with more muttering in between them. Clenching her teeth she raised her fist and gave three small knocks on the door.

The door opened a crack showing a deep green eye and some jet black hair.

"Yes?"

"We uhhh, wanted to thank you...for back there..and I wanted to ask you how you did all of that"

Hermione was able to finally find some sort of dignity and say the last part of her sentence without stuttering or stammering at all. The door opened wider as the young man moved back to flop into a large, plush chair and start sipping at something in a goblet at his side.

The three other teens entered the room completely dumbstruck, they didn't even notice the door closing behind them on it's own. It was roughly the size of a traditional living room with decor to match in some respects. There was a fire with a cheery blaze crackling, a large comfy chair currently occupied by the black haired, green eyed young man, a couch beside that and there was also a beautiful wooden stand beside the young man that held an assortment of books and bottles. All in all, the perfect room for a young (or not so young)gentleman of class and stature.

"Please, take a seat, make yourself at home" The young man made a gesture towards the couch beside him. They sat down still gaping. A room such as this is not what you'd expect to find on a school train.

"This compartment doesn't exist." Stated Hermione regaining her composure at last "Hogwarts:A History covers this train and the instigation of it, there is no room like this on the train, this can't be possible."

The young man shrugged "Life is but a dream, and I'm a lucid dreamer." He sat back taking another sip of his drink chuckling to himself.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Ron burst out finally after a moment or two of silence. His face immediately went crimson under the eyes of the two females beside him.

"Us?" he stammered weakly after a moment. The young man waited for a moment then roared with laughter as though that was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. The two women's eyes narrowed as they looked at him trying to regain control of himself. Wiping a tear from his eye and still letting out a few little giggles he turned back to them right into the face of two angry females. He blinked. The cleared his throat leaning back and closing his mouth.

"Uhh, what is it exactly you wanted me to teach you?"

A glazed look came over Ron's face and a stupid grin plastered itself across his mouth. "Teach us how to fight like that." The young man was shaking his head before Ron had even finished his sentence.

"Fighting should not be a part of people's lives, there are some that need to fight, and they are the ones that will, not you."

Ginny cleared her throat softly "Well, yes, but, we do need to fight."

He turned his eyes to her slowly narrowing them. "And why is it exactly, you three children have to fight?"

Ginny glared right back "Why do us _children_ have to fight? Maybe because our families are fighting, our parents, our brothers, maybe because we don't want to see our friends die when maybe we could have done something about You-Know-Who."

A bitter laugh escaped the young mans mouth "You mean _Voldemort_? You can't do anything about him, you might be able to protect a few of your little friends from his Death Eaters, but in the end there's nothing you can do about Him"

Ginny rolled her eyes "Oh yes, and you know this because you're _the_ expert on You-Know-Who."

Leaning back in his chair a cocky smirk back on his face he nodded slightly "Pretty much yeah, name one person who knows more about him than me."

Hermione was in her element "Albus Dumbledore is supposed to be the foremost expert on You-Know-Who, it's even said that Dumbledore is the only wizard he was ever afraid of."

The young man shrugged his shoulders with nonchalance "Yeah, Albus knows a lot, but not everything, and not as much as me."

Three mouths dropped at this statement, in one sentence this boy claimed to both know more than the great Albus Dumbledore, and called him by his first name.

"Who are you?" Hermione spluttered after a moment.

Another shrug of his shoulders "Me? Oh, I'm Harry Potter."

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A/N And there we have chapter 1. as you can see, i'm totally messing with events, to let everyone know, things have passed in a manner very close to what happened in the books, just without the Diary, and without various deaths. Ginny has kinda replaced Harry as the third of the trio, despie the age difference.


	2. Squish the Toad?

A/N You like me tear you really like me. cough okay, sorry about that, I'm just enthused about positive reviews. In address to one quick question about the pairing that will happen with Harry. I have yet to decide. Part of me want him with Ginny, another part of me wants him with Hermione, a sick part of me wants him with everyone (except Malfoy and Snape, sorry) so in effect, i have no idea, guess the only way you'll find out is to keep reading ) Enjoy chapter 2

Harry James Potter had a great talent for causing long, stunned and slightly uncomfortable silences, three teenagers were just feeling its incredible power. For about two minutes now actually.

"You're _WHO_?"

Harry rolled his eyes, he'd been of course, expecting this, but expectations and reality are far different. "As I said, I'm Harry Potter, Scar and all." With a sigh he lifted up his bangs revealing a narrow scar in the middle of his forehead in the shape of a small lightning bolt.

Three jaws got, if possible, even closer to the ground. While the three sat there completely at a loss for anything to say, Harry merely sat there his hands on his lap and smiling gently at them as one might look upon an exceedingly stupid but adorable dog.

After far too long the two girls managed to make some sort of recovery regaining their composure and sitting back in the couch still staring, Ron on the other hand didn't seem able to remove the glazed look from his face.

"But...but...but, you disappeared, you were never seen again after that night."

"Look, I survived, I went away for a while, now I'm going to Hogwarts, how about we leave it at that. Now, you know all about me, so why don't you tell me a bit about yourselves, how about you start with why your three _have_ to fight, and why you three think you can."

Ginny glared at him narrowing her eyes "And why should we tell _you?_ For all we know you could be a spy with a magic marker posing as Harry Potter to gain our trust."

Harry grinned, this was getting more interesting every minute, and to think he'd resisted the idea of coming to Hogwarts when Nicholas first suggested it.

"Well, you should tell me, because if I thought that your reasons were good enough, I might give you a few tools to help in your fight against the Death Eaters, and as for me being 'some spy with a magic marker' I can guarantee I'm not. Can you suggest any way I might prove it?"

"Wizards Oath" she responded immediately.

Harry shrugged and slid a wand from his forearm. "Very well, I Harry James Potter, do swear on my magic that I am who I say I am and am in no way allied with Voldemort, or any of his supporters."

A stream of white light issued from the tip of his wand coiling itself around his clasped hands and the wand between them. A bright flash followed and Harry tucked his wand away.

"Good enough?"

Ginny nodded and stared at the floor gathering her thoughts. "We belong, kind of, to an organization founded by Albus Dumbledore during the last war, The Order of the Phoenix stands against You-Know-Who no matter what the odds. Over the past years we've also had to deal with a lot of stuff inside Hogwarts. About half of Slytherin are sons of Death Eaters, some have even taken the mark already. The other houses are afraid of them, they all get special training at home and no curses far beyond anything that we can block. The teachers want to help, but they're good, they've learned to cover their tracks. And even when they do get caught doing something they aren't expelled, when we've asked Professor Dumbledore he just assured us that he knows what he's doing and that expelling them would send them to him for good. He doesn't understand that it's just a matter of time before they kill someone. And with what you did to Malfoy back there, it'll probably be you."

Harry tapped his chin softly staring at the ceiling "Are all the Slytherin like Malfoy and his lot?"

Hermione shook her head "Not all, most though, and even those who aren't get forced into doing their dirty work because they're scared of them."

"Well, you've convinced me, I didn't know things were that bad. And as for Malfoy and his band of thugs killing me, I wouldn't worry I've defeated one of the worst dark wizards that ever walked the planet, I think I can handle him. But, something will have to be done, give me a list of all the Slytherin you know don't side with Malfoy and I'll talk with them, we wouldn't want to give him any more followers."

Hermione and Ginny shook their heads in wonder, barely ten minutes and he was already planning on totally changing the way things went at the school. Ron just sat there staring at his hands feeling utterly useless.

"Well, you've given me good reason to teach you a little bit, but getting beaten up my some children at school doesn't qualify you to fight Death Eaters, or for me to teach you how to fight Death Eaters."

"Didn't you hear? Some of them have already taken the _mark!_ That means they're Death Eaters, means they've used the unforgivables, we are fighting Death Eaters here, and as soon as we graduate we'll be fighting them out there too."

Harry sighed "The so-called 'Death Eaters' here, are nothing but toys, given the mark to amuse Voldemort. He gives them pointless tasks that they will never be able to complete, then he tortures them, because he enjoys it, sometimes he probably gets their fathers and mothers to torture them. They are nothing but playthings. As for fighting Death Eaters out there. Do you really think your parents are going to let you join as soon as you leave school? Far better wizards and witches than you three have fallen following the phoenix, should you be allowed to join you won't be sent on any real missions." Harry sighed looking at each in turn "I will protect you here, but you three have no place in the real war."

Ron's head was bowed, the two girls on the other hand were livid.

Rolling his eyes Harry subtly cast a silencing spell on the two girls and watched as they started 'shouting' at him. He sat there for about two minutes as they took turns firing off insults, curses, and basically just shouting. The only sound heard during that time happened when Ron glanced at the two girls then looked over at Harry and muttered a soft "Gotta learn that one"

Harry's grin and chuckle stopped the two girls mid rant. He merely shrugged still smiling.

"You'll find, that I didn't hear a single thing either of you said during the past few minutes. Now, I'll explain what I said before un-silencing you both. You both have parents that worry, no parent wants to lose a child, because of this you won't be sent on any missions that would out you in the face of danger. It's no reflection of Albus' respect for your abilities, or anything as trivial as that. It's simply that should either of you die, I think that people would get...reckless. And the war can't afford that. I will remove the spell now, hopefully you can be civil.

A small wave and suddenly a growling was audible, Ginny wasn't pleased, and it showed. She looked inches away from cursing Harry with every thing she knew, thankfully, she managed to reign those urges in, and show a semblance of maturity. Hermione on the other hand, when confronted with perfect logic, saw it and excepted it.

"Alright, I believe you, but I still think we need to learn how to fight real Death Eaters because plans don't always go how those in charge want them to. So I'll ask you again to teach us."

Harry nodded slowly looking her in the eyes "Very true, they don't, but shouldn't you be learning how to defend yourselves in DADA?"

They exchanged glanced and rolled their eyes "Well, we _should_ be. But over the past two years, all we've done is read the textbook, we haven't actually done any magic."

Harry blinked "_What?"_

They nodded sadly "The ministry interfered at Hogwarts, DADA is the only subject that didn't have a teacher so they've put someone on the job, they want to put ministry people in every subject but so far Dumbledore's managed to keep them out."

A wicked smirk was steadily covering Harry's face "So it's safe to say that you learn nothing in these classes? And that no students would complain to a change in management of these classes?"

The three blinked at him "What?" They all asked dully.

Harry leaned back in his chair smirking and taking on a very superior air "Well, I was thinking that if such an important class was being so terribly managed, I might do something about it."

Ron started to snicker "You mean like turning her all the way into a toad?"

Harry started stroking his chin as if in thought "You know, that may be a good idea...But, I'd prefer to get her out of there on her own free will. More drive her completely insane until she _wants_ to leave. I think I should be able manage that in a week or two."

Ron and Ginny exchanged an evil glance, and even Hermione didn't look overly opposed to the idea "Well" Ginny started "As a representative for the students of Hogwarts, it's my honour to appoint you Chief of Teacher Sacking, use this position wisely."

Harry chuckled leaning back in his seat smiling at them "I do accept this position and all the responsibilities therein and to the best of my abilities accomplish the goals set forth to me by the student body."

Harry grinned at the three sitting on the couch across from him. He had found his first friends at Hogwarts, and all it took was turning an asshole into a rat.

A/N Well there's chapter two, sorry the chapters are so short...it's partially so i can update really fast, and at this point there are just great times to stop for a moment so i skip ahead a few hours, because writing all the tedious details of the train would be...well tedious. And as a note, I've decided for unities sake to bump Ginny up to the same year as the rest because...i feel like it. If you have questions, i would be happy to answer them...if i have an answer at this point. Thank you, and i hope you'll keep reading.


	3. Sorting and Stuff

A/N Okay, this is chapter three, hopefully it'll be longer than the previous ones. Just to quickly address a few things. The events in the Chamber didn't happen, but i think i will involve the Chamber at some point. Voldemort came back in a manner very similar to how he did in GoF and Sirius is still alive, as is Dumbledore. Enjoy chapter three and please keep on with the positive reinforcement, although constructive criticism is welcome, and appreciated.

"Harry Potter" Professor McGonagall's voice rang out.

Harry swaggered out to take hold of the hat, spun it around his hand for a moment then popped it onto his head. Dead silence met this much to Hermione, Ginny and Ron's amusement. Most of the people in the great hall, many of the teachers included looked completely shocked and at an utter loss for what to do. Only Professor Dumbledore seemed to be at ease smiling down at the young man perched on the stool with a smile. The reactions from the other teachers were interesting to say the least. Professor Flitwick looked like Christmas had come early, Snape looked like he'd swallowed a bottle of Skelo-Grow, and Umbridge's eyes were bulging out of their sockets more than usual.

Underneath the hat, completely oblivious to the reactions his presence was causing harry was in the midst of a very nice chat with the sorting hat.

"Hmmm, what have we here, another Potter, I expected to see you several years back if my memory is correct, and it has yet to be wrong yet. So may I inquire about your reason for being here now."

"Is it safe to assume that I only have to think and you'll hear it?"

"Quite so my lad, most of the ones who put me on their heads start talking out loud, quite silly actually, and causes quite a pain in the stitches."

Harry started chuckling, it was worth coming to Hogwarts just for this hat.

"Well, complications are the best answer I'd say. But that's beside the point, aren't you supposed to be sorting me?"

The hat gave what could only be described as an embarrassed cough "Of course, of course, now let's just take a peek around in here...oh my, my dear boy, are you quite sure you're breathing?"

"Last time I checked yes, oh yes, there I go, definitely breathing, why do you ask?"

"Well, there are large portions of you that I can't seem to find, this is really very strange. I don't think I've ever encountered something like this."

Outside of Harry's head things were getting a little stressed, no one had taken this long to be sorted and people were getting damn hungry. Making a decision Dumbledore cleared his throat and stood up.

"Given that Harry is now far older than one usually is when being sorted, there's probably quite a bit in his mind, and the Hat is simply taking its time making sure it gets the right house. I think I would be correct in the thought that Mr. Potter wouldn't mind if we all started eating without him. Tuck In."

Everyone in the great hall started piling their plates high, sneaking the odd glance over at Harry between mouthfuls.

Back underneath the Hat, Harry was having a rousing discussion with the hat, whom he decided (for the sake of ease) to call Englebert.

"Wouldn't being hit by a killing curse from one of the darkest wizards that ever lived when I was just a baby wreak a little havoc with my mind? I'd think that would explain a lot of it, combine that with pretty 1337 occlumency skills, and I'm impressed you can read any of my thoughts at all."

"Well, I guess that does make sense, at this point from the little I can see, you're certainly very brave, but you're also exceedingly cunning. So it's down to Slytherin or Griffindor. I guess I might as well let you choose. That's usually what happens in the end."

"Well, hmmm, what house is that prat with the blonde hair in?"

"I assume you mean Draco Malfoy, that boy is Slytherin through and through."

"In that case, I guess I'm a lion."

"GRIFFINDOR" The hat shouted making half the hall jump in their seats.

Harry smiled standing up and sweeping the hat off his head and bowing to his new table, clearly identified by the cheering people. He gently set the hat back on the stool gave it a small bow, and walked off the stage throwing the parting thought of "We'll talk again in a little bit" back to the hat.

Harry sidled over to the Griffindor table and plopped into a seat between Hermione and Ginny who squealed and gave him a hug from either side.

"We knew you'd be a Griffindor, we just _knew_ it." The two girls were shrieking in his ears.

Harry grinned reaching out to pile some dessert onto his plate. He'd missed the main course, but with Treacle Tart around, who cares.

The rest of the meal passed in good cheer with almost his entire new house coming up to greet Harry, most of the younger ones stuttering all the while, and the girls (and a few boys) giggling constantly as they tried to get their names out.

Harry accepted all this with good grace and willingly engaged in conversation, but tactfully steered any conversation away from his life. This didn't go unnoticed by Hermione and Ginny who shared a glance and a nod, both eager to get a little deeper into the mystery that was Harry Potter.

As everyone was finishing up the meal Dumbledore stood up and smiles around at the Hall.

"Welcome everyone to a new year at Hogwarts, I'm pleased to see many new faces, and so many old ones as well. I'm sure now that you're all fed you would like nothing better than to go back to your beds and sleep for hours, but I must detain you for a few minutes longer for a few announcements. First of all, this year we are hosting several trained witches and wizards that are here for your protection, in light of events over the past years, I believe that our teachers have enough work managing your homework, and putting all of your lives on their plates would be too much to ask, that is why I have invited close friends of mine to act as guardians for Hogwarts, I hope that you will treat them all with the respect they deserve. As a second note, my greatest apologies to those younger students, but it is now necessary for you to be of fifth year or above to visit Hogsmead."

A loud groan and many protests from the younger students accompanied these words but Dumbledore just calmly held up his hands waiting for silence.

"I understand that you may have problems with this arrangement, but I'm sure that there are plenty of older students who will by you sweets and such, I myself might do so if asked nicely, and promised a few Bertie Botts, preferably not Ear Wax." Dumbledore smiled around at everyone with a little wink of one of his twinkly blue eyes "Now, last of all, I believe professor Umbridge has a few things she would like to say"

Three houses stifled groans as the short toad-like woman stood up and smiled at them all as if they were particularly stupid children "_hem hem_ welcome back everyone to Hogwarts, it's nice to see your beaming faces again" Ron's head was already drooping while Harry stared avidly at her "_hem hem_ once again, the Ministry of Magic is taking an active roll in the education of young minds here at Hogwarts. It's my pleasure to be here once again to _improve_ the minds of young witches and wizards. I hope to get to know all of the new students better over the com-" Umbridge finally glanced over harry's direction to be met with bold green eyes and a big smirk. Hardly the reaction she was used to. Her smile came back onto her face staring at him "Especially you Mr. Potter, I look forward to having you in my class"

Harry grinned back at her staring right into her eyes "Oh, I can _hardly_ wait Dolores, it will be such a good time, I'm sure there's _so much _you can teach me." Harry's voice rang out through the hall dripping with sarcasm. Most of the students had to work to keep from busting out laughing and even some of the teachers looked especially pleased to have someone talking back to the ministries lap dog.

Umbridge's eyes narrowed trying to stare Harry down, but in the end she had to glance away first. Harry smirked turning back into the table and saying only loud enough for the three around him to head "Harry one, Umbridge zero."

Umbridge _'heh heh'med _and sat back down glaring over at Harry every few seconds. Dumbledore smiled and stood up once again spreading his arms wide "Well everyone, that will be all, prefects please show your houses tot heir dormitories, I will see you all tomorrow, bright and early for classes."

The usual groans accompanied these words as benches scraped backwards and the students began piling out. The way up to Griffindor tower was fraught with people coming over to give Harry a handshake, or a slap on the back, there were even a few kisses on the cheek all in response to his victory over Umbridge. Everyone piled through the portrait hole stifling yawns, and with quick hugs for both Hermione and Ginny, Harry wandered up to bed chatting with Ron and Neville.

Harry fell into the bed with his trunk at the base and fell asleep with a grin not even bothering to change his clothes. His last thoughts before fading into the oblivion of sleep were '_Maybe this will be a better year than I thought_, _it's certainly started off pretty damn good.'_

A/N And once again, i am giving you a short chapter, but a fun one i think, i just kinda wrote this one off spur of the moment. But, now that they're in Hogwarts, chapters will start spanning more time, I'll start switching characters, giving a bit more of my new Harry's background and start getting into the cooler stuff...hopefully, keep reading, and give me anything that comes to mind on how i could make it better, not promising to use it since it might conflict with what i want, but i also like suggestions (it means your thinking about what i write and i love that) Also, right quick, you might have noticed how i used the totally muggle "word" '1337' i'm not being an idiot, that will make sense.


	4. Strife Begins

A/N Okay, now everyone's at Hogwarts so things can start happening with flow, and all that good stuff. Again, I'm going to try and make this chapter longer, so don't shoot me if it takes me a while to update...if it does then I'm pretty sure that the chapter will be quite a bit longer, and i like longer. Once again, comments and constructive criticism is welcome and enjoyed.

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Harry woke up with a loud yawn and stared up at the crimson curtains in the dim light of the early morning. A grin spread across his face remembering the events of the previous day, leaping out of bed he tossed his robe off and pranced into the shower letting the warm water flow over his shoulders. After a quick soap and rinse he shook himself dry and moved out to pull on some loose fitting pants and a t-shirt and wandered out the portrait hole and down onto the grounds. A few quick stretches and he was off jogging around the lake half way around and he changed direction heading straight towards the water and jumped in starting to stroke across the cold water. The entire thing tool about an hour, and a hell of a lot of work on his part. Harry staggered out of the water, stretched backwards and set back up to the caste as it was starting to stir. He hopped through the portrait hole and up to his room in time to hear the other boys groaning about the bloody hour. Chuckling to himself he enjoyed another, longer, slightly more enjoyable shower before putting on a robe, grabbing his bag and heading down to breakfast.

Flopping down at one of the benches around the middle of the Griffindor table Harry pulled a few pancakes onto his plate, covered them with butter and maple syrup then dug in. It was about 5 minutes and several pancakes before Hermione joined Harry at the table.

"Oh good, I'm glad you're up early too Harry, having someone else around that's conscientious about their studies. With your help I might be able to get Ron actually working."

Harry had to chuckle "Sorry Hermione, I'd like to help you whip that one in shape, but I'm just an early riser, I don't want to go to class any more than anyone here."

Hermione sighed and shook her head "Harry, this is NEWT year, and since you're just getting here, you have more work to do than any of us, I've seen you do some impressive magic, but being able to do that won't get you good grades."

Harry just shrugged and went back to eating, completely unconcerned. Hermione humphed and started eating herself. It was another ten minutes before Ginny made it down, and another five before Ron staggered in still half asleep. Yawning he slid onto the bench opposite the first three down and sleepily filled his plate and mouth.

McGonagall was passing out time tables and Harry took his and perused it lazily "Well, Charms, then Potions and then DADA in the afternoon, what fun. You guys have the same thing?"

Nods all around "except for potions" Ron muttered "Enjoy your first meeting with Snape."

Harry couldn't help but smirk "Oh yes, I've been looking forward to this to. Should prove to be quite interesting."

His new friends gave him incredulous looks "You're kidding right? No one that's ever heard of Snape wants anything but to stay as far away from him as possible."

Chuckling he turned to Ginny "Trust me Gin, Snape and I go way back, I'm sure he'll be just as happy to have me in his class as I am to be in it."

Ginny just shrugged and shouldered her bag to head off to Charms, Harry and Hermione stood up to go with her while Ron continued to shovel food into his mouth. Chuckling they exited the great hall and proceeded to the Charms classroom. They took one of the tables up front (Hermione's choice) and sat down waiting for the rest of the class to filter in.

As the door closed and Professor Flitwick started harry yawned and starting strumming his fingers on the table waiting for the long boring hour to be over.

Harry sauntered out of the class followed closely by Hermione and Ginny. He and Ginny exchanged a glance as Hermione was raving about the lessons they'd just gone through.

"Who knew charms could be used like that, I'd never thought about the duelling possibilities of some of the charms that we learned in first and second year. Like using a levitating charm to block a curse, it's so simple, I don't know why I didn't think of it." Harry and Ginny chuckled together on their way down into the dungeons while Hermione went through pretty much every minute of their charms class.

Entrance into Snape's classroom wiped the smile off Harry's face quite nicely though. From the time he passed through the doors there was a prickle running along his mind. Legilimency. A cold smirk came across Harry's face '_so, not wasting any time, this should be interesting'_ Harry settled himself at the back of the classroom and Hermione and Ginny were quite happy to be as far away from Snape and the group of Slytherin at the front as possible.

Once everyone was seated (Malfoy was oddly absent) Snape walked out of his office his robes billowing behind him and stood behind his desk at the front of the classroom.

"On the first day in my class, I told you that I could teach you to brew fame, to bottle glory, and even put a stopper on death. You have-well, most of you" He sneered at Harry "-Have shown some aptitude to do these things. This is the most advanced potions class most of you will ever take, before the year is out many of you will probably _crack_ under the pressure of it and wish to leave my class. Should you leave you will never enter again. Now, most of you I have watched succeed and fail during your time here. Only one student in this class remains-"

Malfoy chose this moment to wander into the class and take a seat with a polite bow to Snape.

"Only one person here remains as of yet...untested. I believe that will have to be remedied. Everyone else has _earned_ their place here, you _Mr. Potter_ seem to have gotten a free pass, if it was up to me, you would not be here now."

Harry merely gazed up into the man's cold eyes and smiled amicably "Well, I hope that I'll be able to change your mind about my _worth_, I'm sure with a fantastic potions master such as yourself teaching me, there can be no way I could be anything less than flawless."

Hermione and Ginny stared at him dumbfounded, he had just openly, if subtly, challenged Snape's abilities, and suggested that the failure of a student was his failure. Snape's sneer got more pronounced.

"Wise words _Mr. Potter_ but you would be wise to remember that the finest wandsmith can't work with a flawed piece of wood."

With these words the tingle along Harry's mind become a hammer, pounding on the gates of his mind seeking entrance. He kept his gaze passive as he stared down the potions master pushing his mind back on itself.

"How very true _Professor,_ for the first, and most likely not the last time your wise words have enlightened me, I look forward to many more of these _illuminating_ conversations throughout the year." As Harry spoke he sent his mind out forcing Snape's back into his skull, then continuing in with him only long enough to plant one word inside his miserable little brain _'Snivellus'_ rang out in Snape's mind. His arm shot out and words covered the board a look of utter rage contorting his features. "You have one hour, pass it in at the end of class. Begin."

Smirking Harry say back to work on the relatively simple potion carefully chopping, and mincing, and crushing. The rest of the class passed uneventfully with only various glances being sent back towards Harry, hateful ones from the Slytherin, hopeful ones from the few Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. Snape didn't make an appearance for the rest of the class and when the bell rang everyone just set their labelled vials on the desk and filed out.

As the class filed out and started moving towards the stairs out of the dungeon the Slytherin were muttering together in a little group sending angry glances Harry's way. For his part he seemed completely oblivious to them calming walking along whistling cheerfully his hands slung casually behind his head. A few of the Ravenclaws were laughing about how Snape had lost control when mocked by a student, and the Slytherin's were holding back sending glares at the backs of the laughing people in front of them.

Chuckling Harry made his way into the great hall and sat down for a wonderful and carefree lunch putting no thought whatsoever into the class that would follow. Well, almost no thought, galncing up at the staff table he did size Umbridge up once again, _Oh yes, this should be very entertaining_ he thought so himself with a satisfied smirk.

-----------------------------------------

"Welcome everyone, to NEWT level Defence against the Dark Arts, I'm very pleased to see so many young faces that want to take my class."

Hermione had briefed Harry beforehand that given the dismal marks most people received on their DADA OWL's, anyone who scored an Acceptable or above was allowed in, and given that most of the school believed in Dumbledore and about his subtle hints that Voldemort had returned, most students decided to take the class, as useless as it may be. All this added together for a very large class.

"Because this is your NEWT year I expect you all to pay the utmost attention during class"

"Ah yes, wouldn't want to miss any of the words in the textbook now would we" Harry's voice came softly but clearly from the back of the class.

Umbridge's eyes narrowed "Mr. Potter, I do not tolerate interruptions in my class, it's your first day so I'll let you get away with it this time." She gave him a wide sickly smile with barely contained malice behind it.

Harry raised an eyebrow "I can't see interruption possible in your class since there isn't really anything to interrupt."

"Detention tonight Mr. Potter, my office, 6 o'clock sharp"

Harry yawned and scratched the back of his head "A very tempting offer Dolores, but there are other people I'd rather spend my evening with, so I think I'll skip it." The majority of the class were barely keeping their jaws off the floor, although Ron and Ginny were snickering quite enjoying the show.

"Mr. Potter, you may think you have special _privileges_ here, but let me assure you that you are no different from anyone else and must behave as such."

Harry sighed leaning his chair back and adopted his most patronizing tone of voice, disturbingly similar to the way professor Umbridge usually talked to her students. "You'll find Dolores, that no matter how many times you say that, it just won't be true."

Her face was steadily turning redder yet still managed to adopt a smile. "Oh really Mr. Potter, and what makes you so different from everyone else?" Harry grinned _'Like a lamb to the slaughter'_

"You really want me to tell you why I'm so different from everyone else here?" She nodded slowly.

Harry chuckled and stood up and started slowly moving towards her desk "Unlike all the other students here, I have lost my entire family to Voldemort, defeated the prior named as an infant, saw him reborn using my own blood, duelled with him on several occasions, fought his Death Eaters, _killed_ his Death Eaters, and seen things you can't imagine in your wildest dreams." By the time he was finished, he was panting and only inches away from Umbridge's pitiful toady face.

"_LIES"_ She almost screamed at him "You are a filthy liar, you have seen and done none of that, you're just an attention seeking _ORPHAN_"

The loss of his parents had always been a sore spot for Harry, he had been adopted by a kind and loving couple, but they weren't his parents, they never pretended to be but all through his life he'd hated the word orphan. To him it meant unwanted, and that was of the things Harry feared most.

A snarl of rage and Dolores Umbridge was pinned to the wall behind her desk by the sheer force of Harry's will. He slowly and deliberately removed his wand from it's holster "Oh Dolores, I have killed people, and if that wasn't enough, I just assaulted a ministry official, that I believe is more than enough to be sentenced to Azkaban, and being the only ministry official near, it's up to you to bring me in."

A flick of his wand send her hurling away from him and another snap made her wand appear in her hand. "Alright Dolores, bring me in."

The class stared on in shocked silence as they watched one of their peers challenge their DADA professor to a duel.

Smirking Harry turned towards the class "Welcome one and all, to your first _real_ Defence against the Dark Arts class. You see, there's far more to DADA than reading a textbook as she's made you learn. There are many large gaps in your understanding of DADA, for one thing, that it was originally called Duelling, and that is what it's supposed to teach. The reason for the name change, was the law banning duels, apparently no one told Voldemort and his Death Eaters about this law, because they seem to be starting a lot of the lately." If he was expecting a chuckle, he was sorely disappointed, but Harry just forged ahead ignoring the incredulous looks being given to him by his classmates. "Now, as of this moment, I'm taking over teaching your Duelling class because the war will start soon, and I don't want you all going out there with absolutely no idea how to defend yourselves. When I first got here I thought you had all received a good education on all of this, which is why I wasn't really going to teach some of you anything." A nod to Hermione, Ron and Ginny. "Now, first lesson in duelling, if you'll be so kind as to assist me Dolores.

Ex-Professor Umbridge glared at him not quite sure what to do, it was true she was supposed to incapacitate anyone guilty or suspected of a crime, but she knew she was far outmatched by this boy. "Mr. Potter, if you come quietly there will be no reason for any spells to be exchanged, students could be hurt in the crossfire and I couldn't let that happen."

Harry shrugged "I wouldn't worry about that, none of them will get hurt I'll see to that" He made a bow in her direction then straightened up "Now, that's called courtesy, in a friendly duel, it's a nice thing to do, but never bow to a Death Eater, they'll kill you before you straighten up."

"You're making it out like they'll be attacked at every turn, you'll turn them all as paranoid as that crackpot Mad-Eye."

Harry just shrugged "Ginny, how many times have you been attacked by someone or something while attending Hogwarts?"

The girl shrugged starting to enjoy this class more than she thought possible "Usually half a dozen times a year."

Harry bowed to her before sending a jet of blue light at Umbridge "There we go, I think that warrants a little paranoia, and those attacks were by young wizards and witches, what will happen when it's several Death Eaters attacking? You'll defend yourselves that's what"

Umbridge barely got up a weak shield to deflect the minor jinx "Malfoy, get him, he's now a wanted criminal, use any force necessary to take him down, I repeat, _any_ force necessary"

Malfoy looked like a kid in candy mountain, he whipped his wand out and motioned for half a dozen of his cronies to back him up. "Well Potter, seven against one, this'll be fun."

Harry just chuckled "Oh hello again Draco, I was sorry to hear about your father _accident_ I guess with only one leg he wasn't much use to the Dark Lord, but I must say, Selneth enjoyed her snack immensely."

Malfoy's face contorted into a look of utter rage "You're dead now Potter, seeing you rot in Azkaban would be fun, but i think death would be far better. _CRUCIO_"

Harry sighed easily sidestepping the curse "Now Malfoy, the thing about the unforgivable's, is that they're precisely that, but I think I'll save you for later, first I'll deal with your foolish friends." Two Slytherin were promptly knocked back and flipped over tables with a swish of his wand. Another blasted one into the wall making a nice crack. Three of his henchmen down and Malfoy was furious. "_AVADA KEDAVRA! CRUCIO! AVADA KEDAVRA!_"

Harry merely yawned and moved aside but a cutting curse from Umbridge that slashed across his chest got him quite pissed. A sweeping gesture from his wand and Malfoy's final three were knocked out cold. Slowly turning to face Umbridge he deflected two more cutting curses and a stunner before jabbing his wand forward and ropes appeared out the tip to bind her. Malfoy was still firing off curses most of them missing completely, he'd abandoned unforgivable's for a time focussing on cutting and blasting curses. With a sigh Harry blasted his wand out of his hand then flipped him upside down by the ankle. Slowly moving forward harry reached out for his sleeve and amidst Malfoy's cursing pulled it up to show a black and green snake writhing around a skull. Harry's eyes narrowed as he turned to face Malfoy "I had honestly hoped you wouldn't prove to be as foolish as your father, but, I guess it just couldn't be helped." Harry placed his wand in the centre of the Dark Mark and roared out "_APERIO ARBITRO" _

There was a moment of silence before Malfoy started writhing in the air and screaming in agony. Meanwhile, the mark on his arm started getting bigger, and seemed to almost come alive, at which point the snake started twisting itself up the boys arm dragging the skull with it, it disappeared under his robes only to reappear moving up his neck onto his face. The growing snake wound itself around Malfoy's cheekbone running down under his chin to entwine the skull with its tail on his other cheekbone. The entire mark pulsed with a sick greenish light that slowly faded leaving only a deformed black snake and a bone white skull marking Malfoy's face forever.

"Now" Harry rasped leaning into his ear "I have laid you forth so everyone can see you. I was your judge, your jury, and in the end, I will be your executioner."

With a motion of his hand he sent Malfoy hurtling towards the back of the room, several of his bones breaking on the impact with the wall. As Harry moved to where Umbridge was laying bound on the floor, trembling the door to the classroom burst open and Albus Dumbledore strode into the room, wand out and ready, closely followed by Professor McGonagall and Snape.

XXXXX

A/N Boy did i get carried away with that...that started out as a nice little chapter with some Umbridge baiting in my mind...but wow. I guess things are getting exciting a little before i thought they would. Please give me your thoughts on this new development and let me know if you think Harry should stay in school or go out into the world to seek his destiny.


	5. The Oval Office

A/N- Well, here's chapter 5...ummm...yeah...keep reading if you're enjoying it...I had many ways i could have gone after the last chapter...and this is it...umm...enjoy?

**Chapter Five**

Albus Dumbledore strode quickly into his office closely followed by Professors McGonagall and Snape, as well as Dolores Umbridge and Harry Potter. He flopped into a plush chair behind his desk and tossed his glasses onto the table, a hand moving up to rub at his eyes. This day had taken a turn that Dumbledore found particularly alarming, he remembered the warning Nicholas had given him, about Harry's deep hatred for bullies and his sometimes vigilante nature.

Sliding his half moon spectacles back onto his nose he contemplated the young man in front of him. Oddly enough he seemed the calmest of everyone in the room, even the usually unmovable Severus Snape was looking visibly perturbed. Dumbledore let a small tentacle of legillimency slide against the barriers of Harry's mind. _Still as strong as ever, far beyond even me...impressive_.

"Harry, I would like to hear your view on the events that just transpired."

The nodded, clearly expecting this and conjured himself quite a nice chair. Sitting down he steepled his fingers in front of him "Well, after experiencing five minutes of what Dolores calls 'teaching', I couldn't take any more. Lord Voldemort is back and we are denying the people who leave this school the tools to fight back against him. I decided to take the action that no one else has, and end this."

After raising a hand giving a nod to Umbridge and her sputtering and arguing he turned back to the young man "I'm afraid Harry, that there are very few people capable of teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Professor Umbridge is using methods designed and approved by the Ministry of Magic, you are suggesting that the Ministry is denying students both knowledge, and perhaps their lives."

Dumbledore felt a subtle tendril in his mind, it almost caressed his conscious _'Oh, well played Headmaster, sorry to speed things up for you, but this needed to happen now. Before it's too late, but I will admit, we make a fine team.' _Dumbledore had to resist the urge to smile, this young man was far too clever for his own good, but he was getting things done, albeit with quite a bit of risk involved.

"Yes, I believe that is exactly what I'm saying, not the entire Ministry mind you, just Fudge and probably most of his close-in's."

"OUTRAGE!" Umbridge finally managed to get out "How DARE you accuse the Minister for Magic like this? I will see you locked in Azkaban for the rest of your miserable little life."

Harry's grin seemed to only infuriate her further. "Oh my dear Dolores, that would be a wonderful plan, but we've already seen your attempts at controlling me. Now it is my turn, I believe a change in government is in order, and I will give the world the proof needed for them to see it as well." At the end of his speech, Harry leapt out of his seat his hand grabbing Umbridge by the face, then, with a roared "_APERIO MALUS_ _ANIMUS"_ he let her fall to the floor. Sliding a vial out of his cloak he stooped down to catch the pool of silver flowing out of the woman's temple. After a few second he stood back up and handed Dumbledore the vial. "That should be enough to judge both her and Fudge, please, use it to the fullest extent."

Dumbledore nodded then motioned Snape and McGonagall towards the exit, McGonagall nodded and left but Snape didn't move "What about his assault on one of my students?"

Dumbledore shook his head and motioned again towards the door "Not now Severus, we will deal with that soon, but right now I want to talk to Harry alone."

Shooting a glare towards Harry, Snape moved out of the room, followed in about 3 feet by his cloak.

Sighing Dumbledore turned back to Harry, looking him in the eyes. "Around you things seem to have the tendency to get very interesting."

Harry merely shrugged and through him a rueful grin "Must be a talent, but better interesting then boring eh?"

Dumbledore chuckled softly and shook his head slightly "Harry, there are some things that shouldn't be made 'interesting' with your unique brand of it. Such as your way of dealing with Dolores. It was most certainly interesting, but perhaps not the best way to handle the situation."

Raising an eyebrow Harry looked incredulously at the old man in front of him "There probably was, but you're idea of a 'better solution' would have taken far too long. We're running out of time Brian and action must be taken now."

Dumbledore chuckled at the use of his muggle name despite the gravity of what Harry had just placed in front of him "You must have picked that up from Nicholas, he's one of perhaps five wizards who call me that. Hardly important now though, what new information do you have that makes haste of such importance?"

Harry visibly deflated in his chair, his usual cockiness gone. "They've joined him Brian, so many have joined him, and we don't know what to do about it." Leaning forward he rested his elbows on his knees rubbing at his tired eyes.

Dumbledore's gaze was sharp "Who has joined him, and why didn't Nicholas inform me?"

Harry smiled up at him sadly "He's been a bit busy lately to call on you I'm afraid. The number of problems have been growing and he's been busy night and day trying to sort the world out by himself, Perenelle is having a fit."

There was no twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes a his moment "Harry, please, who has joined him."

Silence. Then a short rattling breath as he flopped back into the chair, his eyes staring dully at Dumbledore "The dementors, the giants, there's a clan of vampyres from across the sea that have agreed to an alliance. The number of death eaters has doubled since last month. He's starting to recruit outside Britain. From what our intelligence has gathered he's got upwards of five hundred death eaters currently in Great Britain, and another thousand between America and the rest of Europe. Grayback has also pledged himself to Voldemort, and most of the werewolves with him. Lupin tried his best but was unsuccessful."

Dumbledore's eyes took on the same stare as Harry's and his jaw slackened slightly "What is being done?"

"As much as we can, we have a few people in Asia and Australia as well as South America recruiting for mostly the order actually. We have a few shaman coming from Australia, and a large group of Asian wizards have agreed to help. It seems that Voldemort is attacking everywhere, but every country is too vain to let the other ones know they have a problem."

Dumbledore tossed his glasses back onto the desk and gently massaged at his temples wishing the headache that had just manifested would have better timing. "Well, it's more than the Order has been able to do, we've stopped three attacks in the last week and have increased out numbers by several dozen. It appears that destroying the world is much more attractive than saving it."

Harry chuckled bitterly and nodded "No one wants to be the clean up crew. From now on you'll be kept informed about everything we're doing. There are times we may even need to pool our resources." From his robe Harry pulled two small dark blue orbs "You'll want these, one of them will enable you to speak with head quarters at certain times. The other will let you call me at any time no matter where I am." He tapped one and the word _"Harry"_ appeared in loopy script.

Dumbledore nodded "Simple enough, I assume you're getting regular updates from Nicholas?" A nod "Well, then I would like us to meet once a week, Friday's perhaps? To discuss what happened during the week."

Harry nodded "Sounds good, oh, would you like to talk about the Dolores situation now?"

Dumbledore had to chuckle "Ah yes, I'd forgotten about that with all the talk of more important things. Cornelius will of course want you locked away. But we can't let that happen, any suggestions?"

"Well, we can't let them take me without a trial. All we need is to bring Voldemort into the open and we'll have a fine defence for me. Without that, well I guess I'll just have to escape."

"I think we can do that, we can probably buy a few weeks at least with legal things given that you're still in school. The influence your guardian holds in the wizarding world could also hold up the ministry for a while. I'm actually more worried about who I'm going to have teach Defence Against the Dark Arts now."

Harry smiled wickedly "Why Brian, you're so devious sometimes, using everything you have to keep me away from the Ministry, how nice of you. As for the job, well, I'd offer to do it but I was sent here to be a part of the student body. I'd suggest someone in the order that the Ministry couldn't have a problem with. An Auror would be a good choice, Kingsley or Nymphadora would do a very good job. Keep Mad Eye for a last resort."

Dumbledore smiled and nodded "Good choices, I will look into it. I think we better go down to supper now, I'm feeling rather hungry aren't you?"

Harry nodded and stood and offered the headmaster a slight bow then turned to leave. As he was about to move down the stairwell he turned back to give Dumbledore a small smile "You know, you're every bit what Nicholas told me you'd be. And a bit more I think." With those words Harry moved down the spiral stairwell leaving Dumbledore smiling and dabbing a small tear from his eye.

**A/N**- Okay, short chapter I know, I'm sorry, but I thought I'd just keep that scene as itself. Umm, I've said it before but I'll say it again, I'm trying to write longer chapters...it's just hard...so read, review if you have anything to say. And things will be explained later...i hope.


	6. A Mothers Love

Here we are with Chapter Six. Hopefully during this chapter I'll finally expand to looking at other people, and give a little more plot to things. Well, here we go.

**Chapter Six**

Albus Dumbledore was a very, very patient man. He had the ability to deal with near any manner of buffoon with perfect kindness and benevolence. Despite this, Cornelius Fudge was getting on his nerves. It was the morning after his little discussion with Harry, and the 'assault' on Dolores Umbridge by the same young man. Cornelius had arrived in his office the next morning nearly ripping his precious bowler hat in two, his face purple with rage, and making absurd demands of Dumbledore to produce the Potter boy so he could be given the kiss immediately. Fudge had ranted and raved for almost a full hour with many interjections from Dolores.

Dumbledore sighed fingering the vial Harry had given him the previous evening. He had used a spell Dumbledore had never heard before, but the effects were clear. It produced memories, and didn't leave the victim completely unharmed. Currently Dolores sported a rather well done illustration of a large black rat on the side of her face. Young Harry, it appeared, certainly had a flare for poetic justice, even if it did sometimes get taken a little bit too far. The memories pulled out of Dolores' twisted little mind were damning to her, Fudge, and several other high ranking ministry members. He hadn't wanted to use it, but it appeared that he would have to. He found it odd that harry hadn't made any mention of it after giving it to him, they had talked for quite a while but never once had he given away his reasons for placing them in Dumbledore's care, or suggested they be used to blackmail fudge into releasing him.

"Cornelius" Dumbledore interrupted the man as he sputtered on about the dangers of having a 'half crazed dark wizard' running around Hogwarts. "You will not be taking Harry off these premises and that is final. I would ask you to leave my office now, I believe it's time for lunch."

Fudges face became an even darker shade of purple "What do you mean we won't be taking him? I have not been making a request Dumbledore, we will take him with or without your permission."

At this the portraits on the wall started shouting insults down at Fudge _'Never has any minister had the gall to go against the wished of the headmaster of this school'_ shouted an old grey haired wizard with a small trimmed beard. _'Oh if I were still there I'd give you a piece of my wand'_ A curly haired witch screeched at him brandishing twelve inches of finely polished birch. _'Dumbledore, perhaps this would be a wonderful time to make use of a few of my things that you found'_ Said Phineus Nigellus grinning evilly at Fudge.

Holding up a hand to the portraits Dumbledore stood up towering a good half foot above Fudge even with his shoulders stooped "Cornelius, if you try and take the boy there will be unimaginable consequences. Take heed of that and leave now, go back to your office and sit in your chair, and enjoy it while you have it."

Standing up straight with all the dignity he could muster with his legs trembling he gave a signal to the five aurors behind him. "That is a direct threat to the Minister of Magic, Albus Dumbledore you will come with us for a trial and sentencing."

Dumbledore almost cried at the mans foolish arrogance. Despite everything he was shown, he still thought he was the smarter because he was Minister of Magic, and Dumbledore was only a school teacher. Kind of sad really.

Instead, he merely smiled down at Fudge and the aurors, pocketed the vial of memory, and called to Fawkes. "Very well, I'll meet you at the courtroom, ta ta." With that he disappeared and Fudge and the others were rather forcibly ejected from the room.

0o0o0

As days went, Harry Potter was having a particularly good one. The good day technically started on the previous one. Between shoving something down Snape's greasy throat and getting Umbridge out of the school he could hardly complain. Follow that up with a pleasant conversation with Albus Dumbledore and then a night outside under the stars made things quite wonderful. Add to this the Fudge was as big an idiot as he'd been told and fell for the whole thing hook line and sinker just made Harry even happier. Oh yes, if Dumbledore played the cards right (as he was bound to) there would probably be a new (competent) DADA teacher by the start of the next week, and a new Minister of Magic (again hopefully competent) by about the same time. Oh, and if that wasn't enough the fact that he 'attacked' Umbridge and branded Malfoy had gone around the entire school. Around every turn that morning he'd found at least a dozen people dying to shake his hand, pat him on the back, or in a few cases give them the location of their dormitory, password, and which bed was theirs.

The only people that seemed to have any problem with him were Fred and George, who despite now being school guardians with the Order were still up tot heir old pranks. They had approached Harry that morning at breakfast both with near-murderous glares fixed on him. Harry chuckled remembering their antics.

"What the deal Potter?" George asked glaring at him and prodding him in the chest.

"You made us a challenge, and now you've gone and made it impossible." Continued Fred

"You stole our mark"

"And we don't take kindly to that"

Both pulled out their wands pointed them straight at him while Hermione and Ginny stared flabbergasted. There was a loud BANG and a cloud of smoke. As it cleared Harry was hoisted up on top of a chair that was being held in the air by Fred, George, Ron and Neville as disembodied trumpets blared out a joyous tune. To the sound of trumpets they paraded an amused Harry around the great hall circling all the house tables then the staff table hollering at the top of their lungs the 'story' of "Harry and the Hag" a rather dramatized version of the events of the previous day. Strangely none of the teachers seemed inclined to stop the antics or even stop them from shouting the song at the top of their lungs. With pairs of earplugs they seemed to actually enjoy the comments about the ex-professor.

Currently Harry was seated in Dumbledore's office awaiting his return while conversing with the sorting hat. Who seemed shocked that Harry might want to continue a conversation. It appears he was the first one to really talk to him (it?) Since his creator. Despite being a hat, Englebert's mind was wonderful, it was in fact, the mind of a wizard, what wizard he couldn't rightly say. Being a hat tends to mess with the memories of when you were a human. Harry saw a flash of fire in the office and sighed saying goodbye to Englebert moved the hat back to his usual post and turned to towards the headmaster.

Dumbledore looked sad but triumphant, he turned slowly to give the young man a weak smile.

"Well, it's done, it went exactly as we both thought without a hitch. I must say though, I feel a lot of pity for Cornelius at this moment. I know what I just did was necessary, but it wasn't pleasant."

"Not all is fair in love and war Brian. I'm sad to say, but this is war. What you've just done has helped more than anything else you or the Order has done in the fight against him."

Dumbledore nodded and sighed the twinkle gone from his bright blue eyes. "I know Harry, but you know Cornelius won't last two weeks in Azkaban. For all the time he's spent with them, he can't deal with it. He's done too much. I don't like killing, and it's what I've just done."

These words moved Harry, he knew that Dumbledore had seen many horrors in his long life, had killed people and seen people killed. Despite all this he somehow remained pure, remained fighting for the light and only for the light. Slowly he stood up for his chair and moved over to set a gentle hand on the old mans shoulders.

"Yes, you've just killed a man, but you've also probably saved dozen of people, men, women, children. So many more will now owe their lives to you."

Leaning heavily back in his chair Dumbledore smiled at the man beside him and nodded. "You're so much like your parents Harry, Lily and James Potter were some of the best people I knew. They always remained strong when it was needed."

A lump formed in Harry's throat. It was so sudden, the Flamel's hadn't known his parents very well, so they only had a few stories. Coming from a man that had known them since they were only kids at this school was a shock. Turning abruptly away from him Harry moved towards the doorway muttering a goodbye then stumbled downwards into the hall.

Dumbledore sighed looking at the young mans retreating form. Not the wisest thing to say in retrospect, but it was good to know that he still felt hurt. Perhaps more would be discussed in their meetings than just business.

Down at the bottom of the steps Harry pressed his forehead against the cool stone walls and scrunched up his eyes against the tears that threatened. He balled up his fists striking the wall with a frustrated growl. After all these years he couldn't handle hearing the names of his parents, there was a wound in his heart that was ripped anew every time someone mentioned the names Lily or James Potter. So absorbed was he in his own thoughts he didn't hear the slow steps approaching him from behind. He was startled by the cool hand on the back of his neck that gently played with the bottom of his hair. Turning around he came face to face with the closest thing he had to a mother, Perenelle Flamel. She was a slight witch, her auburn hair discoloured only at the temples by twin streaks of white running back to mix in with the rest in the loose bun behind her head. She had a smooth face and few wrinkles. The only thing that gave away her great age away were her eyes. The constant use of the elixir of life that sustained her and her husband throughout over five hundred years had stained them a milky white flecked with a deep crimson. Anyone with less knowledge would have suspected blindness, but Harry knew those eyes saw every movement and were even now searching his face for traces of what was wrong.

"Oh Harry, it's been several years since I've seen you like this. What could Brian have said that effects you this much?"

Slowly he crumpled into her arms his head resting in the crook of her neck a sob escaping her lips. Nothing more needed to be said, the old witch stood there simply holding the shaking young man, turned boy in her arms. After a few minutes his shaking stopped and slowly be moved back upright wiping a few tears from his eyes.

"I'm glad you're here Mother. Brian was able to do it, you should probably go talk to him."

Mother, such a simple word that had such a profound effect on someone. Perenelle Flamel never believe that she would ever hear anyone call her that. Much to their dismay both her and her husband proved unable to conceive. It had been sheer chance that a young babe would come to them. She remembered the night very well, it was the height of the war, Voldemort was growing in power and it seemed nothing could stop him. She and Nicholas were almost off to bed when Brian had come into their house nearly incoherent. He seemed both as happy and as sad as they had ever seen him. Finally, after calming him down and getting some tea into him he proclaimed that Voldemort was gone. How a mere infant had been his downfall, but only at great price. The Potters were dead, and their infant son an orphan. It was he that had caused the curse to backfire. Brian had at first wanted to put him with his muggle relatives, but upon further thought, and with no small amount of work from Nicholas and herself, he agreed that he'd have to be kept in the wizarding world. The night ended with Sirius Black bringing the boy to Dumbledore. The boy was asleep and appeared no worse for the ordeal he'd just gone through other than a thin lightning bolt scar across his forehead. In the end, the boy was left with her and Nicholas while Sirius Black went in search of the Potters secret keeper.

Perenelle smiled sadly at the man in front of her. He had been through so much in his young life, Nicholas and herself had tried to shield him from all they could, but destiny would not be denied pieces of the boys heart and soul.

"Yes, I think I should do that, you should get some sleep, you forget that I can see through those simple glamour charms. You're eyes are red with purple bags underneath them. Sleep harry, we'll talk later."

He smiled his gratitude gave her a small peck on the cheek and moved slowly down the corridor towards Griffindor common room. She turned back towards the spiral staircase and walked up to have a little chat with Brian.

"Canary Cream" Harry muttered to the Fat Lady and moved into the near deserted common room. Flopping himself down in front of the fire he leaned back and closed his eyes hoping the heat of the fire might give him a better rest. But sadly, sleep didn't come immediately, a pair of bodies on the other hand, did. Wrinkling his brows he opened his eyes to look down at two rather shapely female forms curling themselves around his torso. Lavender Brown. Parvati Patil. Interesting. Far too tired to argue he merely shrugged and closed his eyes again leaning his head back. Silence, then two giggles. Followed quickly by shrieks and a noticeable lightness on Harry's body. Intrigued he opened his eyes to meet the sight of the two witches hovering in mid air upside down and a pretty witch with a heart shaped face and rather odd bright blue hair looking at them disapprovingly.

"Ladies, this is neither a harem, or a brothel, even given permission which was not really given, draping yourself over some bloke in the middle of the common room even if it is deserted is against school policy. Now, both of you off to bed."

The two girls came crashing down onto the floor then ran up their staircase shooting death glares back at the woman. Harry looked at the fleeing girls then back at the woman an amused smirk on his face.

"You know, spiky blue hair really doesn't add to the intimidating teacher look, try a brown bun, certainly works for McGonagall. The witch grinned and sat down by him her hair changing to long brown locks as she moved. Harry grinned wider and extended a hand

"Ahhh, Nymphadora Tonks, the new DADA professor I assume?"

"Quite correct, and your name is?"

Harry couldn't help but chuckle, he liked her already.

"Me? Why I'm no one of consequence."

She leaned her head back and let out a laugh. Where Lavender's and Parvati's were light and girlish, Tonk's was deep but womanly and harry found he thoroughly enjoyed it. Smiling at him she grinned stretching herself out on a couch.

"Well, Harry Potter, Dumbledore warned me about you. I think he said something about knowing whether or not I'm up for the job by whether or not you ridicule and duel me in front of your entire class."

Grinning back at her Harry just shrugged.

"Oh, I'm fairly sure it won't come to that. Even if you prove completely incompetent as a teacher you'll be far nicer to look at than Umbridge, so I might keep you around for a week or two."

Tonk's raised and eyebrow offering him a little wink.

"Why Mr. Potter, flirting with a teacher, how inappropriate of you, I think I should warn you that if you do that in my class you might find yourself helping me demonstrate some of the more...interesting...NEWT level curses."

Harry offered the best bow he could manage while sitting down in an armchair and flashed her a wide smirk.

"Well, in that case I'll just keep my sexual banter to these delightfully private conversations, although a curse or two might be worth it now and then."

Tonk's shook her head trying to contain both laughter and the blush that was threatening on her cheeks. Standing up she once again shook her head at him and started walking towards the portrait hole throwing some parting words to Harry.

"Nice you meet you young man, I look forward to seeing you in class."

With that she left the common room and left Harry alone, chuckling as he leaned his head back to sleep peacefully for a few hours at least.

**A/N-**Well, here we have chapter six. Umm...yeah, comments, questions, whatever you feel like saying...i welcome it all. Including suggestions for where you'd lime to see things go, not saying it'll happen, but everything helps. This would be, and could be longer...but I'm tired and want to get this off. Expansion didn'y quite work as planned..but bear with me, it'll happen.


	7. A Fine Meal

**A/N-** Okay well given extreme writers block it's been a while since I've written anything, hopefully this chapter will fly by now that I'm applying myself...and have a nice bowl of ice cream ) cough anyway, with a little help from a wonderful reviewer (lordwhatucallit) I've realised that...aside from the central sort of stuff every chapter could be part of a different story. I hope to remedy this situation, i think it'll be better for everyone if things start making more sense. So once again, I'm going to put more thought into the plot and where it could go which will hopefully improve the flow of it all. And once again (if I've said it before) thank you to everyone who's reading my little story, i greatly appreciate it) Oh, and by the way...i have no idea how a Hogwarts class schedule would run, so I'm just throwing classes out there...in no real order...so if it doesn't make sense...that's why.

**Chapter 7-**

Breakfast had always been Harry's favourite meal of the day. You could have something sweet or sour, rich or light pretty much anything could be considered breakfast food . Breakfast was especially delicious that morning for Harry for many reasons. First of all, it came after a very good rest, it seems all it took for Harry to start sleeping again was some action on the part of Albus Dumbledore. Another reason was his relief that a new generation of witches and wizards might actually now know how to protect themselves when they left the safety of Hogwarts' walls. There was also that the sun was shining particularly bright, and the air seemed fresher, and a whole bunch of other fairly inconsequential things that make a day delightful.

It also could probably have been blamed on the two rather attractive young women sitting beside Harry Potter at that moment. He had noticed that Ron was being forced more and more to sit with Dean and Seamus since he was completely ignored by Hermione and Ginny while Harry was present. At first he felt some pity for Ron, but figured in the end it was probably better that way, with the amount Ginny flirted with him, as subtle as it could be, the on-guard brother couldn't miss it all, and would most likely throw himself at Harry when he finally noticed.

"Double transfiguration, oh joy." muttered Ginny from Harry's right, staring at her timetable. They were working on basic inanimate-animate transfigurations. A huge part of NEWT curriculum. Harry just shrugged smiling over at the girl.

"Think of it this way...you could have Snape or Umbridge for a couple hours."

Her face scrunched up into pure disgust, acting sickened by the mere mention of their names.

"Ugh, gross, thanks for ruining my appetite jerk." Harry merely chuckled at the girl. Her and Hermione provided great contrast in personality. Where Ginny was enthusiastic and fun loving Hermione was a bit more reserved and preferred to have her head buried in a book most of the time. For someone as complex as Harry he needed contrasting personalities around him to keep him entertained and keep things from getting boring or routine. Still smiling he lifted his bag onto his shoulder and flanked by the two girls headed off to Transfiguration.

0o0o

Harry sauntered down one of the castles many corridors oddly alone and lost in his own thoughts. He was passing one of the many girls bathrooms when he heard a very insistent '_Let me out!'_ Harry whirled around flattening himself against the wall, a wand in either hand quickly muttering the incantations to reveal any invisible persons or animagus in the area. Nothing. It came again, louder this time and much to his surprise, in parseltongue. It became louder the closer to the bathroom he became, prying the door open soundlessly he entered, wand first. An empty and rather dingy bathroom is where Harry found himself. Slowly he moved around the room inspecting everything, licking his lips nervously. He knew of only one other person that could speak parseltongue and no snake he'd ever met could talk at that volume. The idea of facing Lord Voldemort in a girls loo was not the magnificent end he'd hoped for himself.

Something on one of the sinks caught his eye and he bent forward to examine it. There was a small serpent carved onto the pipes of a sink. '_Worth a try'_ he figured to himself then, raising himself up both wands pointed at the toilet he said clearly _'Open'_. To anyone else all they would have heard would have been a deep hiss, then a shudder of the floor as the sink moved away to show a slimy tunnel leading deep into the bowels of the school. An eyebrow quirked Harry Potter jumped into the black opening his robes billowing around him.

0o0o

Tom Riddle, or more commonly, Lord Voldemort sat languidly on a throne of the blackest obsidian. It was covered in designs of serpents, the most prominent being the great basilisk carved around the seat and headrest. With a usually unknown tenderness he caressed the ridged scales of the basilisk in the obsidian his thoughts moving unbidden back to the great serpent he had found and tamed deep beneath the halls of Hogwarts. It had been a great beast, his only regret was that he couldn't invade the school and once again have the King of Serpents at his side. Tom Riddle sighed remembering the day he discovered the entrance to the Chamber in the girls loo. He had been walking along on his prefect rounds, his usual partner was sick so he was alone. And a voice startled him out of his thoughts. It took several moments before he understood that someone was speaking to him in parseltongue. He followed the wonderful fluid voice into the loo where it showed him how to unlock the chamber. His only explanation was that an enchantment from long ago, performed by Salazar Slytherin himself was triggered by the presence of someone who could understand the language of serpents.

He had wandered around the passages under the school for an hour or more before he came to what he would later name 'The Hall of Kings' where dwelt the pride of Slytherin. The Basilisk. Little was known about the basilisk except that parts of it were needed for some of the greatest and most difficult potions in the world. Slowly, over weeks Tom Riddle would sneak down into the Chamber of Secrets, now His chamber, and force his will upon the basilisk. It was a slow process but eventually it was completely under his control. Then, he set it upon the school. His work had just begun when the fools had threatened to close the school if something wasn't done. He couldn't have that, he still had so much work to do. Reluctantly Tom Riddle left the basilisk in the chamber and sealed it until he could come back and reclaim his beast. Over fifty years had passed since Riddle had closed the chamber and he still wasn't able to overthrow the fool Dumbledore and take what he really wanted. Hogwarts, he would make it his home, and use it to train those who truly deserved to be taught. Only one house would remain, Slytherin the wise, Slytherin the cunning, Slytherin the patient. That is why he waited. The time would be right soon.

Lord Voldemort snapped out of his reverie realising what had happened. It had been years since he'd thought that much about the Chamber, about anything as a matter of fact. Only one thing could explain it. Potter. The boy must have found it. Sometimes when the boy did things that he had done in his life the thoughts would be passed through their link and he would slip into the memory. A cry of pure rage rang through the halls of Voldemort's stronghold. Death Eaters cowered at their masters anger praying that they wouldn't be punished again.

0o0o

Nymphadora Tonks sighed and massaged her temples with one hand. It was the beginning of an OWL level DADA class, and she wasn't sure how much more of this she could handle. It was painful watching some of the spell work the kids in this class were doing. She asked for a demonstration of a simple stunning spell. Three people were able to manage it, and only one came close to her target. After demanding why the quality was so poor the girl who had done the best just shrugged her shoulders and muttered softly "It was our first time" This floored Tonks who thought that they'd have at least cast it a few times. But no, even their end of term exams hadn't had a practical portion. She just prayed that she possessed inhuman amounts of patience or else her room would be littered with empty bottles of Ogden's best.

By the end of the class she had covered all of what you'd learn in first year and part of second. This was going to be an exhausting term. She glanced at the clock hoping that the afternoon with the NEWT year would be a little more productive. A smile worked itself onto her lips almost hoping that she could dual Harry, it would certainly liven the day up.

0o0o

As Tonks sat contemplating how a dual with the young man would go, he was entering Riddles 'Chamber of Kings' it was a fairly large room, maybe half a quidditch pitch made of marble and obsidian with illustrations of serpents covering almost every inch. Harry strode across the chamber his eyes narrowed with both wands out. A huge hulking shape was visible at the end of the chamber coiled around the leg of a rather large statue of Salazar Slytherin himself. Hearing the clacking of heels on the smooth stone floor and the smell of human the great basilisk raised its head focussing on the young man moving quickly towards him. Not being very bright the basilisk slowly uncoiled itself moving slowly not considering the small warm blood a threat. The reductor curse that chipped off several of the beasts great hard scales made it reconsider that and rear up high hissing a challenge.

Harry refocused on the serpents head high in the air as it shrieked an incomprehensible challenge. Unlike other serpents the basilisk could only understand parseltongue, it couldn't actually speak it. Harry knew why, it was the same reason he was killing the beast. It was an abomination, a serpentine scourge. It was as much a serpent as a ghoul was a man. It was a perversion, against the very order itself. Slytherin hadn't found the basilisk he had created it. It was a long and difficult process requiring potions, spells, and plenty of blood sacrifices. No one but a parseltongue could create a basilisk, which was one of the reasons there were so few, the other was that only a handful of the wizards who had the ability to speak parseltongue were evil enough to bond themselves to such a creature. It lived for nothing but the kill.

Harry through a wand upwards towards the great scaly head with another silent _'Reducto'_ snapping the beasts head upwards, it merely curled backwards and shot it's head forward mouth agape, trying to swallow him whole. Harry launched himself to the side curling his body up to avoid the great jaws and sent two cutting curses backwards to slash at its eyes. One sank deeply into the flesh of its skull, the other went a little high. The basilisk let out a cry and brought its tail around to crush the young man. Cursing he sent two streams of energy muttering _'Depulsis'_ two waves of energy struck the ground below him at the same time shooting him about ten feet into the air, avoiding the tail. Twirling his left hand wand he shouted out _'Muto Gladius'_ in a few seconds the thin piece of wood turned into a long shining silver sword as he came crashing down onto the floor to charge straight at the beast shooting off curse after curse at the eyes of the beast. It raised its head protecting its valuable eyesight and let out another shriek. Grinning in triumph the young man launched himself straight into the mouth of the serpent pushing with all his might upwards with the sword through the roof of the mouth into the small brain. It stiffened then slowly sagged falling with a huge crash onto the floor. Sadly harry hadn't thought before acting and staggered out of the beasts mouth with ripped robes, covered in basilisk blood and a broken leg. Panting he fell to the floor looking down at his leg and clothes.

"Shit, I knew I should have been paying attention when cleaning spells were being explained. What was it..._Scourgify'_? A little bit of blood disappeared off his robe. "Damnit, I'll probably be in the hospital wing for the first DADA lesson."

Harry pondered as he slowly got to his feet. "No, I'll go after, I don't want to disappoint dear Nymphadora. _Incarcerous_." Sighing he rolled his eyes "You owe me Nymph, _Desino Dolens_." Tossing his robes over his bound leg he started hobbling out of the chamber muttering over and over the cleaning curse getting as much blood off as possible.

0o0o

Nymphadora watched harry hobble into class and take a seat at the back stretching his leg out. A small frown appeared on her lips. He wouldn't be much fun if he was in pain and surly, and he'd obviously done something to his leg. What was is about men and getting themselves hurt, could none of them take care of themselves? No one else had arrived yet so she slowly closed the door and hopped onto the desk he was sitting at raising an eyebrow at his leg.

"Don't tell me the famous Harry Potter slipped in the shower and broke his leg, that would crush peoples dreams of you being some fabulous immortal who doesn't require the daily needs of the masses."

Harry shot her a wry grin

"Well, I would hate to crush peoples dreams, maybe next time you can be there to catch me."

Flirting was a very underappreciated art, and harry was doing a pretty good job of it. Tonks wasn't one for the subtle gentlemanly type of flirting. A lot of her time in the Auror Academy was spent around men, and as most men, they were pretty crass and blatant. It reminded her of good times to hear someone to flirt like that, especially someone as handsome as this young man.

"Oh very funny Mr. Potter, and a very tempting offer, but I won't be one of the women caught sneaking out of your bed in the morning. Now, back to the leg, I assume that it won't affect how you perform in class will it?"

He gave her a salute with an air of seriousness.

"Not in any way Ma'am, I'm fit as a fiddle and will give you one hundred and ten percent all class in any area you ask me to."

Tonks gave a laugh and smiled fondly at the charming young man as the bell rang and she moved off to open the door and let the rest of the class in. As usual Hermione and Ginny sat on either side of him and Tonks gave him a look glancing at the two girls causing Harry to burst out laughing for no apparent reason.

The two girls gave him an odd look before focussing on the teacher who closed the door, getting the classes attention. She took a seat on the edge of the desk and surveyed the class with interest.

"Welcome to your real Defence Against the Dark Arts class. I am professor Tonks. I've seen how much the OWL year, and I suspect you lot aren't much better. As far as I know, only one of the people in this room can do anything resembling good spellwork. For that reason Mr. Potter, you probably won't be learning much in this class, but I will be calling on you at times to help teach. Can you handle that?"

Harry slowly nodded, he hadn't expected this. Tonks returned his nod and perched herself on the edge of the large wooden desk.

"Who can tell me what a wizards dual is?"

The entire class slowly raised their hands glancing at each other. Tonks looked from face to face before settling her gaze on Hermione Granger.

"Miss Granger, could you please tell us what a wizards dual is."

"A wizards dual is when two wizards or witches cast curses, jinxes and hexes at each other with the intent to harm or immobilise."

Tonks nodded again drumming her fingernails against the table.

"A rather complex explanation but correct none the less. Another way to define a wizards dual is simply two people sending spells at each other. Would you agree Mr. Potter?"

Harry shrugged but nodded "I guess so, my problem with Hermione's explanation is the word 'two' rarely are duals that fair. Also you can use things other than curses, jinxes and hexes, but I have a feeling that dualing tactics were not a big part of the curriculum."

"Quite right, but for the sake of simplicity we'll start with merely curses, jinxes and hexes because rarely do Death Eaters use anything but those."

Hermione's arm raised tentatively into the air and Tonks gave her a nod to speak her mind.

"Professor...does that mean that you'll be teaching us how to really fight? To fight Death Eaters? Like in the last war?"

"Precisely Miss Granger. The ministry might not want you all and your family's to know that the Dark Lord is back but I have no such qualms. In this class you will be learning about the horrors that happened in the last war so that you might be able to prevent them from happening again in this one. Any more questions?"

No hands were raised.

"Very good, I want you all to partner up and demonstrate everything you know that would count for anything in a dual. But be careful and don't be stupid, unless they're basic ones that a third year should know ask me before casting. Begin. Mr. Potter, come here a moment please."

Harry pushed his seat back and wandered up to the front as everyone partnered up and started shooting minor curses at each other most of them flying far wide. Leaning against the desk beside her Harry looked over at his professor and then back at the class.

"We have a lot to do to make these children ready to fight Harry."

Harry sighed and nodded watching as Neville's disarming hex hit someone about three pairs over.

"It's going to take the entire year just to make it to OWL level. And that's with everyone catching onto everything almost right away and I can't see that happening."

Tonks sighed and waved her wand idly shooting a thin stream of water to douse a fire someone curse had started.

"I had an idea after my OWL class that I'll need your help with, I'm going to be running it past Dumbledore this evening, feel like coming along? You might have a few things to add."

Harry shrugged and nodded "Sure, why not I was planning on having a chat with Brian this evening anyway."

She smiled slightly at the student speaking so informally of his headmaster then turned her attention back to the class.

**A/N-** Well, there's chapter seven, damn that took a long time. As always, reviews, comments, criticisms, it's all fine so throw one at me. Oh, and questions, there's always a chance i didn't explain something enough for those outside my own head.


	8. A Very Bad Man

Harry and Tonks stepped off the spiral staircase up to Dumbledore's office to the sound of shouts barely muffled by the thick oak door leading into the office proper. They glanced at each other with raised eyebrows then opened the door and walked through it to find Lucius Malfoy screaming at Dumbledore.

"How dare you let that half bred animal touch my son? He still has that bloody mark on his face that your twisted little pet put there! I demand satisfaction for both the physical and emotional harm caused to my son!"

"And what form would this 'satisfaction' of yours take?"

Malfoy whirled around to stare, his eye bulging at the calm face of Harry Potter. His lips curled into a sneer glaring at the boy.

"A year in Azkaban followed by your servitude to my family until your dying day should suffice"

Harry raised an eyebrow at the man then glanced over at Dumbledore who sat contemplating the scene before him. Harry turned a small smirk back at Malfoy.

"Now Lucius, I don't see why that should happen, branding me as I branded your son might be acceptable if I had branded him. But I think we both know who put that mark on him first now don't we. And you probably held his arm still while it happened didn't you. Like father like son as they say."

Malfoy's usually white complexion was turning a deep red as he clenched his hand tightly around his cane his other hand inching towards the wand in his pocket. Harry merely smiled clucking reprovingly at him.

"Now Lucius, wouldn't want to get violent now would we? A formidable necromancer you may be, but I don't think you'll be able to handle Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter, and a ministry trained Auror/professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts all on your own."

His eyes flickered back towards Dumbledore, to Tonks and then back to Harry himself. Shooting a death glare at Harry he twirled his cloak and snapped his cane against his side and limped out leaving a smiling Harry, a bemused Tonks and a worried Albus Dumbledore.

"Well Harry, you do have very good timing. I'm not sure how much more of Lucius' ranting I could have taken. Although how you dealt with him could have used some work. You just made yourself a very dangerous enemy. Fudge may be gone but Lucius still has eyes and ears all over the ministry and could cause many problems for you."

Harry just shrugged flopping into a large comfy couch he conjured for himself and Tonks.

"Trust me Brian, he and I have been enemies for quite some time. This little incident does nothing but add a little to his fear. Now he knows how much I know, and through that how much you know."

Dumbledore nodded slowly scrutinizing the young man that knew so much.

"I take it that means you didn't use the word 'necromancer' solely through boredom of calling people wizards?"

Harry smiled sadly and shook his head settling himself against the arm of the chair.

"Oh no, Lucius Malfoy is a necromancer through and through. His spellwork in other ways is impressive but he really shines with the dead. That's how he's still able to walk. The clever bastard reanimated a leg for himself, when it's completely healed and he's done all he can with it it'll probably be better than before."

"How do you know all this Harry?" Tonks this time "Just knowing what a necromancer is isn't common knowledge these days, and you seem to have an understanding that goes far beyond mine."

Harry shrugged smiling over at her "Oh you know, picked it up here and there. And being part of a necromatic ritual certainly played a part in my interest in the subject. But that's perhaps a story for another day."

Dumbledore's eyes widened at this proclamation, when Nicholas had told him that Voldemort had been resurrected he had suspected necromancy, but harry's involvement came as a complete surprise.

"_What do you mean you were involved in a necromatic ritual!_" Tonks suddenly screeched at him.

Harry smiled looking over at the woman and patted her arm gently.

"Oh calm down Nymphadora, _Blood of the enemy forcibly taken you will revive your foe_, that's what Wormtail said as he took the blood from my arm, a simple nick against my will was all that was needed. Interesting night that."

Dumbledore almost chuckled at the boys cheek, talking of a dark and forbidden ritual that probably hadn't seen the light of day in centuries as one might discuss the weather was certainly interesting.

Tonks' eyes narrowed at Harry as he smiled at her comfortingly patting her hand gently before turning back to Dumbledore.

"But yes Brian, Lucius Malfoy is a necromancer of the highest order, and if I'm not mistaken he's teaching young Draco almost everything he knows. He won't be a threat for a little while yet but there's much evil in that boy and there's a good chance he'll become far greater than his father."

The twinkle left Dumbledore's eyes at this, he knew that there never had been much hope for Draco Malfoy, too much of his father in him and too many dark influences around the boy. But hearing so bluntly that a child under his eye had gone over to the side of evil pained the old man greatly.

"I know Harry, I've known for several years but in my heart of hearts I've always hoped that Draco could be brought back to us, even when he took the mark I prayed he could be turned like Severus, sadly it doesn't look promising."

Harry nodded crossing his legs and looking over at the portraits of the former Headmasters and Headmistress' of Hogwarts fondly his eyes flicking over all the great Witches and Wizards.

"Professor, are there any school rules forbidding access to what was once known as the Chamber of Secrets?"

Startled out os his thoughts Dumbledore turned a quizzical eye on harry.

"Well, no formal rules, there has never needed to be any since only once in the history of the school has someone opened the Chamber, and that was over fifty years ago. Why do you ask?"

Harry just shrugged

"Oh, just curious, seeking some knowledge and all that. Now, I believe Nymphadora wanted to discuss something with us."

The woman nodded leaning forward in her chair with a sigh,

"Yes Harry, thank you, I haven't had many classes yet, but already I can tell that the students here are severely lacking in combat magic's. They can charm and transfigure things fine, but a simple stunning spell is more likely to hit themselves than their target. Even the NEWT level students can't cast more than three spells that would be covered in third year. Because of this I want there to be extracurricular defence and duelling classes. We'd work not only on the regular DADA curriculum but also go into duelling tactics, alternative methods of offence and defence and then I hope to put most of the sixth and seventh years through the first year of Auror training in the course of about a month. I for one believe that with war brewing they're going to need to know how to defend themselves against Death Eaters more than how to read a palm."

Dumbledore nodded the twinkle back into his old blue eyes.

"Nymphadora I was hoping you'd ask me about something like this, I for one am in full support, although I would like to put a few restriction on it, I'd like it available for OWL year students and above because I've seen how you teach and I don't want any of the younger students getting hurt, other than that you have my full permission. Write up a timetable and curriculum for me, I'll look it over and then you can start as soon as you're ready. Although I would like to know why you've asked Mr. Potter here for this."

Tonks nodded throwing Harry a smile and settling back, more at ease knowing the Headmaster was on the same page as her.

"Well, that's going to be a lot of students to control for one thing. For another I'm not sure how many people are going to want extra DADA homework, the OWL and NEWT years get enough as it is. But, with Harry Potter, the boy who from what I hear kicked the piss out of the old DADA professor and a few other students at the same time...well it would get me there in a hurry."

Harry and Dumbledore shared an amused glance before Harry shrugged and nodded to the old man.

"Well, I'm up for it. I don't mind being a poster boy for something like this."

Tonks grinned and slapped him on the back.

"Excellent, knew you'd be up for it Harry, thanks a ton, so how about it Albus?"

Dumbledore chuckles softly at the two young peoples enthusiasm.

"Well, it is of course Mr. Potter's choice, so if he is of accord then let it be so."

Tonks grinned gleefully and grabbed harry's hand squeezing it tightly

"Thank you sir, I'll write something up for you tonight and will give it to you first thing tomorrow. In fact, I'll go do that now, come on Harry, you can help."

Harry nodded chuckling to himself as he stood up to follow Tonks when Dumbledore's voice pulled him back.

"He'll be with you in a moment Nymphadora, I would like a word with Harry quickly, I'll try not to keep him long."

Tonks nodded and threw a smile Harry's way before leaving the room pulling the door shut behind her, leaving Harry and Dumbledore alone together. Sighing softly Dumbledore looked into Harry's eyes gently stroking his beard.

"You do understand what you're undertaking here correct? This will be a big responsibility, Nymphadora has all of her classes to attend to so much of the work done will be under your guidance. Do you feel up to the challenge?"

Harry nodded quickly "Of course Brian, I wouldn't have volunteered if I didn't. Consider my tutelage of your students Nicholas' contribution to the Order."

Dumbledore sighed softly and nodded,

"I will do that Harry I just wish he would be willing to work with us more. He knows so much, and us so little that he'd be an invaluable asset."

Harry reached out and patted the old mans hand with his own. Dumbledore was rather surprised to feel the toughly callused and hard hands of a man, rather than the soft hands of a boy.

"Trust me Brian, he has his reasons. What he's doing can't be done while the Order totters around behind him. I'm sorry, but I'm all he's lending to the Order, and you should be thankful even for that."

Dumbledore's blue eyes, dulled for the moment by sadness met the young mans eyes, a brilliant green full of ferocity and life. Looking into those eyes the twinkle returned along with real hope, Harry was a natural leader, that much was clear.

Dumbledore smiled looking over at the young man and nodded.

"Don't worry Harry, I'm very glad that he lent you to us. Already you've proved yourself a fine wizard, and a better person. Now, I believe Tonks is waiting down the stairwell for you and is getting a mite impatient."

Harry chuckled softly standing up and nodding to the Headmaster before strolling over to move down the marble staircase shutting the large door on his way. Albus Dumbledore stayed up very late that night, compiling a rather large notebook on everything he knew about Harry Potter. Between rumours, and suspicions and hard facts, it covered a rather large amount of text. He carefully stashed the notebook along with his other most precious possessions, for should that fall into the hands of enemies, the consequences would be disastrous.

OoOoOo

As soon as Harry hit the bottom of the stairwell a young witch with long straight green hair pounced on him with a yelp of glee. After a moment...the witch appeared to realise that she was cradled in a students arms, and with a slight blush and an awkward cough extricated herself before going on for the ten minute walk back to Griffindor common room.

"...Through all of Auror training, only seventh years because it's rather rough, but if we do that they'll be able to handle most Death Eaters in a one-on-one fight, oh, and we've got to work on fighting multiple opponents because those bastards always bring back up. Never fight fair.."

Harry merely chuckled as Tonks ranted and ranted about how they'd go about the whole thing. From what Harry heard they'd have to have classes every day to accomplish half of what she had planned. Not that he didn't share her enthusiasm, at first he hadn't been sure about the students here. But now after getting to know some of them, learning about them. He had to teach them, they had to learn to defend themselves. Harry reached over and placed a gently hand over Tonks' mouth as the portrait of the Fat Lady came into view.

"Alright, that's enough, now you go back to your office and write all that down...but son't stay up all night. Kay?"

Tonks nodded demurely like a naughty child and Harry laughed again moving towards the Fat Lady as Tonks grinned back at him walking away. Shaking his head Harry stepped up to the portrait and gave the password under the half disapproving, half impressed glare of the Fat Lady.

**A/N-** Okay, I'll end it there...wow that took a long time. Sorry I guess? For all those who care. I'm gonna try and update more...but I can't promise anything. Also, I've started writing a pre-story to this one..because I'm bad at doing the same thing over and over again. So..if you like this one look out for that, it'll give you a better understanding of how things went down...I hope.

P.S. I'll try and involve more Hermione/Ginny in the next chapters...and...answer questions and such i guess...


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